It was a busy 10 days in Gyor Hungary for the ICF Canoe Marathon World Championships, where we had a crew of over 20 representing South Africa in the Masters section which is run before the main events. Clint, who had been getting lonely on his own over in Europe was very happy when some familiar faces (Monty, Tim, Brian, Chris, Murray, Nigel, Rob, MJ, Mike, Pier, Matt, Garden, Ricci, Waldo, Vern, Gus, TC, Stan, Ronnie, Fish, Bridgitte, Pippa and Hank. And Alex, but he was flying the Aussie flag. And our Hungarian coach Adro) arrived. Anyway off they went to dinner on that first night, but their dinner table looked so sad, as only Elandrie was allowed a beer – the athletes all had to have water, even though they were staying at the Amstel hotel; with Heineken branding all over the place.
Although many medals were won by South Africa the beers were best earned by Elandrie for the gees and all the coverage shared to keep us informed. As a good manger she did recruit and delegate, strategically placing people around the course – so thanks also to Renschi, Monty and Bridgitte for all their efforts, they really were appreciated. In the K1’s Monty was our first man on the podium, winning Gold. Mike and Gus dominated their division taking Gold and Silver. Bridgitte owned her race to take Gold while Pippa earned Bronze and as expected Hank totally dominated his age group to win Gold. Piers didn’t win a medal – but deserved one after taking a swim at the start and then fighting his way back up to the front of the race.
Apparently beers were allowed after the first day of racing, and just one saw Garden get excited and start playing with Ricci. It’s scary how happy they all looked. Who said “what goes on tour stays on tour’?
In the K2’s Chris Vis took Bronze, but with an Aussie partner, while Ricci won a Gold, but with a Japanese guy, so these didn’t count as medals for South Africa. The rest of our boys pairings were all competitive but didn’t won medals. The last of the Masters races was the Mixed Doubles where Hank & Pippa won Gold ahead of Bridgitte & Ricci, with Ricci medaling twice in 1 day before racing home. Listening to the comments from our noisy boys (MJ, Matt, Alex and Co) and looking at the choice of drinks, it was clear that the drinking started right after the racing, and then there was lots more during at a fines meet led by Garen and MJ, where the best fine was shaming Alex for paddling in the mustard yellow of Australia. Well done to all for the gees, the racing and the medaling.
The ‘main’ events (Junior, U23 and Senior) were then professionally televised, with fantastic commentary from UK’s Ivan Lawler and SA’s Bridgitte Hartley (recently appointed as a member of the International World Games Association Athletes’ Committee – Congratulations!) We had 20 athletes representing South Africa, but here we only won 4 medals and sadly none were Gold. Andy Birkett took a superb Silver in the Senior Men’s long course K1’s as did Keegan Voght in the Junior Men’s K1. Voght then went on to earn Bronze with Ryley Smith in the K2’s while Jade Wilson won Bronze in U23 Women’s K1. Unfortunately SA’s main hope, Hamish Lovemore wasn’t well and didn’t race, while Nix Birkett also didn’t race K1’s.
20 boats qualified for the Men’s short course final, including all the expected hero’s like Pederson, Pimenta, Candy, Varga, Vold, Alonso and Ramalho, but not Lovemore. Well done to Clint who stepped in for Hamish, and qualified along with Uli Hart. The sprint to the first turn was brutal with Pimenta leading all the way. The Portuguese pair of Pimenta and Ramalho got away after the first portage with Vold and Pederson chasing. Pederson dropped Vold before the second portage to make up the top 3, where Pimenta did most all the work with Pederson testing him all the way. Pederson went wide for the final sprint but couldn’t beat Pimenta, who then couldn’t stop his showmanship, and Ramalho took bronze. Uli was just 30 seconds of the pace in seventh while Clint was a minute behind in eighteen place.
In the Senior Men’s long course of 29km Pederson went off on his own before first portage, and stayed out on his own for the whole race – smiling almost the whole way, with the exciting stuff happening behind him. The chasing bunch was whittled down to just 4 including Andy Birkett and Nick Notten, Candy and Sellyei. Andy was always strongest on the portages (river bank format as opposed to a pontoon or a jetty – so almost Dusi like stuff for him) and he fought off the Hungarian to claim Silver. On the final portage Candy swam at the put-in leaving the door open for Nick to go through into fourth but he too fell in and had to settle for fifth.
28 K2’s and 56 hungry guys made a very impressive line-up for the final honours. After 10 minutes there was a front bunch of 10 with Hank & Uli well in contention at around 6th place, while Clint Cook and Nick Notten were literally at the back of the field. The Portuguese pair of Pimenta & Ramalho (who had dominated in the short course K1 and sat out the K1 long course) dominated the day and won their fourth successive title ahead of the Danes Pederson & Knudson (Senior and U23 long course K1 winners) who still had the reserves to power past the Hungarians for silver. After a poor start Clint and Nick ground their way up through the chasing bunches and did really well to finish in sixth place while Hank and Uli faded back to thirteenth. Some of our club members were full of praise for Clint’s performance, others openly said mediocrity shouldn’t be sugar coated, that he should have been on the podium – as Fish likes to say: “Dabs is a tough school.”
Down in the Cape the WCCU held their K2 Champs on the Breede, and some of our guys were there. The low level meant that most of the major obstacles had to be portaged, and there were a lot of tree blocks that created different channels to keep things interesting. There were also some interesting and untested combinations, including the likes of Wayne Jacobs with Josh Fenn, Greg Louw with Mat Fenn, and Belkie with Carnage – along with some seasoned pairings like Mike Arthur with Ricci Talevi (just back from Hungary) and Jasper with Dawid Mocke. The Mocke’s won the end sprint for day 1 just ahead of Louw & Fenn, with Keeling and Rice coming third, but things changed on day 2 which was won by Wayne & Josh, and the final result saw Greg & Mat take Gold, the Mocke’s came second, Wayne & Josh were third while Mike & Ricci came fourth. Well done guys! It will be interesting to see what combos appear for the SA K2 River Champs down in Cradock. But it’s sad to think that some real river paddlers may not be there at all because of a somewhat congested calendar in October with lots of focus on the Surfski World Champs. Let’s see what happens, and who supports what…
Talking surfski, as we all know, Dabs is a Canoeing Club, that includes running and surfski. Anyways, 10 of our Navy guys decided a downwind on Saturday would be a good idea. On the Thursday and the Friday Wind Guru showed fantastic conditions (a hot and sunny afternoon with a moderate Southerly wind) on the Vaal Dam, a trip that has become an annual event, organised by good old Raoul. Things didn’t quite go to plan, but as we know, that’s par for the course. First the driver and bus didn’t arrive, so the guys left an hour late in two vehicles instead of one. Two drivers were recruited from Denysville, but this added more time as they had to be picked up. Eventually the seamen arrived at the shore of the Vaal, where a surly guard wanted to have them evicted off private property, and here they were confronted by the real challenge in the late afternoon. The weather had turned. It had gotten grey, rain arrived and there was lightening everywhere. Worse, the wind had got stronger but was then Easterly, not Southerly, plus the Apps showed it was going to swing Northerly and that the lightening wasn’t going to abate. Five boats stayed on the trailer. The crew all of a sudden had seven drivers. The other five mad men set off across the inlet, paddling straight into the wind with a plan muddled by Moolies to cross over and go around the Island to then get blown back to Denysville. By 17hoo, it was pitch dark, with lightening every few minutes to illuminate things. The rain turned to hail, the wind tuned northerly, and the infamous five bailed at the Vaal Marina, about 5km from the start, where they found a bar and revived their cold, wet bodies with rum and coke, while the other 5 were on the far side of the dam – wondering where they were. Needless to say, lessons were learnt, but all agreed it was interesting, and way better than staying home to watch reruns of the rugby.
While some may have been disappointed on Saturday, even more disappointing is the number of entries received so far for the Liebenbersvlei. Come-on guys and girls. Come support your club and your sport.
Till next time: Go Dabs!